H.R. 3609 — Remove the Stain Act

This section states congressional findings on the Medal of Honor—awarded 3,547 times total, including 20 to 7th Cavalry soldiers for the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890—and asserts that those awards, given for participation in the massacre of approximately 350–375 unarmed Native Americans (nearly two-thirds women and children), diminish the award's integrity.

This section rescinds each Medal of Honor awarded for acts at Wounded Knee Creek, Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890, and directs the Secretary concerned to remove each such recipient's name from the Medal of Honor Roll maintained under 10 U.S.C. §1134a. (As background, the Medal of Honor Roll records recipients of the Medal of Honor who served on active duty, entitling living enrollees to a special pension under 38 U.S.C. §1562.) It further specifies that no person is required to return a rescinded medal and that the rescission does not deny any federal benefits to such individuals.